FS2004 DefArea Layer of apt grass and AI sinkin

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Guest Claviateur

HelloI am wondering what is the layer of the texture that represents the Grass underneath the default airports in 2k4? I use DefArea to exclude them and I succeeded back in FS2002 by using layer 4 as mentioned in 2k2 SDK however now it seems that the layer changed as it does not exclude it anymore in 2k4... Did anyone find out the apropriate layer for the default airport grass texture in DefArea?My second question is related to the AI traffic sinking in the ground of my airport. The player airplane sits well on the surface of the airport however the AI sink in the ground. Does it have to do with the physical flatten poly or with the AFCAD altitude? I changed the AFCAD but nothing changed as for the AI contact point with the apt groundThanks!Michel

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1. Airport background polygons are now layer 7 in FS9.2. I think this can be a result of an incorrect AFCAD altitude, or the aircraft contact points in the aircraft.cfg file. I'm not sure of the fix, but you might search this forum, and the Project AI forum, since they seem to have a lot of experience troubleshooting this sort of thing.- Martin

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Guest hefy_jefy

Hi Michel,I had the exact same height problem when I moved my airports from Fs2002 to 2004.In 2002 the AI traffic/ttools thing didn't work too well at small airports near mountains (nothing to do with Lee Swordy I think it was a 2002 problem) so I didn't bother with it too much. But in 2004 with Lee's new AFCAD and TTtools it works great!But I also have some airports where the AI aircraft either "hover" over the surface or the wheels disappear into the tarmac.I fixed it by slewing the default equivalent "real" aircraft to the AI aircraft and estimated or measured the height difference between the two by using the Q and F1 keys and looking at the altitude in Shift Z display. Then go back to the original scenery project (in may case Groundmaker,or FSSC) and adjust the airport height accordingly. Changing the altitude in the TTools airports.txt file doesn't work, I think its just used for pattern altitudes.Now I am trying to figure out how to get an aerial photo UNDER the excellent new runways and taxiways that are created by AFACD204, the layers ARE different in 2004, MS do it at various large airports like SFO etc. so it must be possible...Anyone?Geoff

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The altitude problem for the AFCAD is a known problem. We (NL2000 team) contacted Lee about it and he has no clue why the altitude that you enter in AFCAD is ignored. He suggested that the default flatten of the airport might cause this, so we are going to try to use a LWM flatten ourself to see if that can get our planes above the ground again.For the photos, try to place them as CUSTOM mesh scenery, that is the way MS has also done it. You can do this with the tools form the terrain SDK.

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Guest Claviateur

Thanks for the tips gentlemen. My airport is near a mountain as well so it might be related. I will wait to see what will Lee say about it. Actually FS2004 SDK will explain many new little things to be adapted from FS2002. I am not that familiar with the LWM flatten. I used Architect2002 to design the scenery wish works pretty well in 2004 except for these little issues here and thereCheersMichel

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Guest luissa

>The altitude problem for the AFCAD is a known problem. We>(NL2000 team) contacted Lee about it and he has no clue why>the altitude that you enter in AFCAD is ignored. He suggested>that the default flatten of the airport might cause this, so>we are going to try to use a LWM flatten ourself to see if>that can get our planes above the ground again.Hi Arno,If you select, in AFCAD, the airport from the database and save it after having deleted EVERYTHING, you will find the altitude (copied from the default AFD files) in the 4 bytes at addresses 94 ... 97.If you repeat that but, before saving, you change the altitude of the airport, you will get at addresses 94 ... 97 the values that you would like to see in the default file. Then if you change the 4 byte sequence in the default (and if you are lucky, not to change something that should not be changed) you get a default AFD file with your desired altitude.In small areas, like the ones I worked lately, the AFD default file only refers to the airports that you are working on and this is acceptable (?). But changing a default file has its problems as you certainly know.Regards, Luis

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